Cheer Up! Soon I’ll Be Able to Enlist

Chris Marcil: ‘You write: ‘And I fear there are a lot more chickens straggling roostward. (Did anyone count them when they left?)’ Well, I did, but that was before they hatched, unfortunately.’

☞ Cute.

CHEER UP

Anon: ‘Your blog was terribly depressing Thursday and you sounded very depressed yourself. You must focus on the positive. Sunrises and sunsets are both free.’

☞ I totally agree . . . and to the extent I am a bit glum from time to time, it is way less for me than in thinking how much needless harm we Americans have done ourselves.

Sally: ‘Hey, Don’t Feel Bad!!! I took a little money that I could afford to lose, just as you said, and bought a little tiny bit of FMD. When it went up by 25%, I said, Hey! I’m outta here! And made a cool $400 or so. That was quite fun for a novice pipsqueak investor, thank you! I’ll spend some of it on Obama.’

☞ You were a heck of a lot smarter than I was.

SALUTE

What happens when you assemble a bipartisan panel of retired brass to study ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ 15 years after its adoption?

Congress should repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law because the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win, according to a new study released by a California-based research center.

The study was conducted by four retired military officers, including the three-star Air Force lieutenant general who in early 1993 was tasked with implementing President Clinton’s policy that the military stop questioning recruits on their sexual orientation.

“Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion,” the officers state.

. . .

Navy Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan said he had no opinion on the issue when he joined the panel, having never confronted it in his 35-year military career. A self-described Republican who opposes the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war, Shanahan said he was struck by the loss of personal integrity required by individuals to carry out “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“Everyone was living a big lie – the homosexuals were trying to hide their sexual orientation and the commanders were looking the other way because they didn’t want to disrupt operations by trying to enforce the law,” he said.

☞ The study itself is even clearer. Page 2 has ten ‘findings’ and four ‘recommendations’ that blow this issue out of the water.

If you want a stronger America, you don’t want to exclude talented, committed volunteers based on their race or religion or gender – or, yes, sexual orientation.